The Story of Ada: a Spiritual Journey Through Dreams: From Awareness to Self-Discovery

By Mavis Aldridge PhD

The Story of Ada was fueled by a yearning to understand more deeply who Ada really is beyond external appearances. From early adolescence to maturity, multiple dreams formed a hidden current of energy behind many of Adas professional activities, dreams which kept whispering their messages of something moreeven when, for lack of understandingshe ignored them while recording three volumes.

Sparked by the comment of a friend, Ada, in her retirement years, went on a relentless inner quest during which she realized that her dreams were, all along, a subconscious spiritual lifeline, supporting her on her lifes journey and revealing hidden aspects of herself which had inhibited her soul growth.

Her arduous explorations culminated in an illuminating discovery of her personal elusive why of so many dreams.

A blueprint for others to understand dreams as expressions of loving grace.

Carolyn Tricomi, PhD

Applause and congratulations! An amazing job of collecting dreams and tracking Adas growth!

Connie Kaplan, PhD

An amazing document of deep, symbolic, and spiritual experience.

Lillian Baumann, PhD

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452517612

Mavis Aldridge PhD

Mavis Aldridge is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Xavier University in Ohio, and Fordham University in New York. Dr. Aldridge’s teaching career spanned elementary, secondary, and college levels. She retired as professor emeritus from John Jay College where she taught in the Communication Skills Department for twenty-one years.

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CHAPTER ONE

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…life is a sacred adventure of the soul. Our souls have inner yearnings and mystical secrets ready for our discovery when we pay attention to our lives and to our dreams… Our dreams and visions become guideposts along the way. Barrick1.

Those of us who take this spiritual journey seriously devote time and energy to deepen and evolve our knowledge of it. We study how the masters and mystics have taken the journey and we strive to be conscious of our own spiritual unfolding. Kaplan2.

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HOW IT ALL BEGAN

A Mom’s Influence

As a child, Ada often heard her mother, Beatrice, speak about dreams she had the night before. She expressed them as though they were a sacred experience and was even able to interpret their meaning in relation to a current situation or a pending event. Ada was quietly impressed with her Mom’s confidence. Although she often had doubts about the accuracy of the interpretations, Ada was convinced that Bea intuitively knew she was her own seasoned guru when it came to understanding her dreams. For example, when Ada’s brother, Vin had a tractor accident which ended in a court case and his companion was fatally injured, Mom dreamed that she saw angels dancing around a fire, and as a result, she knew that the case would end in Vin’s favor, and so it did. When Ada sat for a difficult examination in her elementary school years, doubting that she would be successful, Mom assured her, Don’t worry, you are going to pass! Last night I had a dream that somebody gave me a glass of milk and I drank every bit! Again, without objecting to the seeming mismatch of dream elements and the reality of the events, young Ada wondered how Mom could be so sure she was right. Yet, dancing angels fire and glass of milk were images written indelibly in Ada’s memory, images Mom associated with good news, images that would much later be among symbolic events in Ada’s own prolific dream life!

It was as though Bea had a special intuitive gift, a legacy of dreaming, which it seems by association, she would pass on to Ada and some of her siblings, although in a much limited version. As for her Dad, Mom’s dreams and the meanings she assigned to them were not only abnormal, they were downright irrational, far-fetched, and definitely superstitious. However, the impact on Ada was formidable, and continued to be so even now in her late senior years when she no more has doubts of the significance of her dreams.

Early Awareness of Her Dreams

Ada remembers her first dream very vividly. She was born in Jamaica, and at about age fifteen, she had taken the Third Jamaica Local, another of those difficult essay type examinations which consisted of eight subjects based on the English system. Failing one subject meant taking all eight again after preparing for another whole year. It was a rigorous experience she dreaded so she studied much more than was necessary in order to avoid the repetition. Of course, she became anxious about the results. Shortly before they were published, she dreamed of a huge bird’s nest with colorful birds playfully flying in and out of it. She enjoyed the dream because birds had been her favorite creatures. Their instinct for survival, unique characteristics, their wide variety, their ability to soar with spontaneity and freedom, and cover long distances with such small bodies filled her with admiration. What myriad exotic places they must see, Ada often pondered with slight envy. With glee, thanksgiving, and relief she received the news that she was among the successful candidates that year. Did she associate her dream of birds with her success? Not then, but birds was just the beginning of a long list in her later dream repertoire of nature symbols close to her heart, including rivers, oceans, waterfalls, fountains, animals, flowers, fruits, and all the vibrant colors associated with them.

For many years, Ada held the belief that dreams with such symbols were only reflecting her love of nature which had become a vehicle for stimulation and personal, private joy. She could recall times in her childhood when Mom recruited her as bearer of gifts and messages for her uncle who lived far up in the hills of Mount Pleasant. Ada’s private thrill was to leave early in the morning, sit on a rock near a clump of trees near her uncle’s house where she not only caught the whiffs of ripening spice pimento, but she had the exciting privilege of being shrouded in the enchanting morning mist. She could delightfully greet the magically spreading silver shafts of sunlight just as they were peeping over the horizon. After some tantalizing moments of increasing brightness and dancing color flares, the rays would suddenly burst into a radiant glittering golden ball amid wispy white clouds and a light blue sky. After she had her thrill and fill of her private fun show, so divinely directed, she left as if walking on air to complete the errand for Mom. Ada recalled on one occasion, after greeting her uncle, he stood silently for a few moments, skeptically gazing at her as if she were a rare specimen from Mars.

Other fascinations were part of her inventory of secret delights. Ada loved to stand under the arch formed by the trees over the roadway at a special area half-way on the hill on the six-mile journey from school. With her classmates some distance ahead, for her, that area became enchanted during dark winter evenings, as the arching tree branches cast their magical spell of artistic patterns on the road in the bright moon light. Except for the out-of-space sounds from the orchestra of night insects and the owl, or the intermittent glitter of fireflies, there was a soothing silence tempting her to lie right there and go to sleep over the lace-patterned shadows in the middle of the road. It was a heavenly experience under the canopy of branches penetrated by beckoning rays of bright stars and the all-embracing light of the moon.

Following her transported session, she hurried to rejoin the group of boys and girls still engaged in their own world of taunts, raucous laughter, and wild, uninteresting chatter which sounded as if no one was listening to anyone, yet everyone seemed to be enjoying everyone else’s company. They had no idea of the fantastic excursion Ada had just experienced. Was she missed? Perhaps they were accustomed to Ada’s oddities and she felt glad that no one ever asked as to her whereabouts as she would have been stumped to explain!

For a long time, it was her belief that dreams of stars, moonlight, trees, sunlight, and hill climbs were just modified reenactments of her childhood’s intimate connections with nature rightfully earning inclusion in her dream symbols inventory. However, one day, in a casual conversation and sharing, another special friend, also astounded at some of her dreams, commented, Ada, you have not yet begun to understand the meanings of your dreams! In that moment, her friend’s observation sounded trivial and meaningless, but later, when Ada began exploring her records of forgotten dreams, she realized how absolutely and profoundly correct her friend was. Now, after three decades and three volumes of entries with comments on coinciding events, Ada arrived at a point of acute awareness that her dreams have been reflections of a fascinating spiritual journey which she began feeling compelled to explore. Psychologically, believe it or not, it was a heroine’s daunting journey!

CHAPTER TWO

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…To deny a dream is to deny a part of ourselves. Dreams are an instant connection to our unconscious. It is a place of mystery and the unknown…A moderate attempt to interpret our dreams will lead to greater self-understanding and awareness, as well as to moments of enlightenment resulting in greater consciousness. (www.dreamtalk.htm,,p.11

Something More is that mysterious, missing, odd-fitting piece of ourselves, and Spirit is determined we’re going to find it one way or another… Breathnach,2

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A RECURRING DREAM AND A FLOWER SPEAKS

Following graduation from a Catholic Teacher’s College Ada delved into teaching in Catholic Schools for several years with unstinting dedication. This was nurtured by her early association with clergy, and nuns with whom she lived and worked for several decades, beginning in her teen years. It was a long, mysterious connection which Ada will always hold with deep reverence. But that is another intricate story to be told. How does one explain an irresistible compulsion which led to a series of intriguing experiences comparable to the beginning and end of a long chapter, complete in itself, yet related to the other sections in a mystery book? In general, Ada enjoyed the opportunities for creative expression in her overall teaching career which spanned kindergarten, elementary, secondary, and college levels. During the period of one administrative assignment in a secondary school while in Jamaica, she had a recurring dream.

I am climbing a rock with very sharp edges; I am making no progress and my hands and knees are bruised and bleeding.

Even after the third occurrence, Ada remained unaware of the message of this dream. She made no connection with the circumstances of her daily life. It was just another dream, although so different from the presence of birds. By that time Ada was more mature, deeply involved with school activities, enjoying the challenges and demands of working with parents and students, organizing meetings, garden parties, regional science fairs, and graduation exercises. She felt fulfilled, always aspiring to new endeavors, never experiencing a dull moment, as there was always another goal yet to be accomplished, another event for which to plan and prepare.

Despite her apparent successes, there was a nagging sense of emptiness, of something missing, an awareness, a hunger, a beckoning towards an unidentifiable, elusive reach. Since climbing a rock, bleeding and getting nowhere on the climb did not stir her curiosity enough about the message from the dream, something else more tangible and striking would, in time, arrest her attention.

She regularly passed and admired the flowers in the garden near the St. Joseph’s building every morning on the way to the school office. One particular morning, the bed of pink and white begonia blossoms seemed much more alive and colorful than ever before. As a matter of fact, the blossoms were so abundant that the stems bent with the weight of the rich clusters as if to command attention. It seemed even the leaves became fewer in order to accommodate the volume of the blooms. Thoughts of the Creator filled Ada’s mind; she stopped in her tracks as this was such an unusual sight to behold! It was as though she were looking at them through new lens, and without knowing the full meaning of her words, or how she was prompted to say them, she uttered a self-affirming statement, "This is how I am meant to be…BLOOMING! It was a pivotal moment, but what did it mean? Ada was getting a message, not from a book, a mentor, or sermon, but from something whispered to her from that which was non-human, voiceless, and concrete! Without any clarity about how her blooming could occur or how it would unfold, she knew without the slightest doubt that her time in that fulfilling administrative position had ended.

Shortly after, with the help of several angels in disguise, acting at various junctures of time, the mechanisms for entry to the United Sates were set in motion and executed. An interesting set of circumstances led her to the huge, cosmopolitan city of New York where she finally landed. Beginning in January 1976, her life underwent dramatic changes during which dreaming and her forgotten desire to be blooming became inextricably intertwined. Only after many years, the What and the When would provide the constructs to determine the Why of her intended mysterious dream journey, a journey which can only be undertaken with determination to find clues with the strategies of an archaeologist and the relentless courage of a heroine.

CHAPTER THREE

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To the disbelieving, dreams may simply be a puzzling, disturbing or totally irrelevant phenomenon. To the individual who desires self-improvement and communication with his divine self, dreams will show the way. To the dedicated person who seeks to serve his fellowmen and God, dreams will bring understanding, joy, and peace of mind, for they are the magic mirror of the soul. Sechrist1

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A DOOR OPENS AND A NEW LIFE BEGINS

With a total of three hundred dollars in her pocket, and without knowing how it would happen, Ada originally planned to stay only two years the most in New York City to earn a Master’s Degree. The spectacle of winter boots, coat and gloves was intimidating. The thought of her gnashing teeth in the cold season strengthened her resolve but apparently the Universe had other plans